Cardinals have closed in on NL Central crown

Friday

Sep 27, 2013 at 3:22 PM

Dennis Miller

Longtime St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon oftentimes says: :Ole Abner has done it again” when there is a dramatic moment towards the end of a close game. Abner is of course Abner Doubleday for the uninitiated. Abner has certainly done it again as we are to the final weekend of the 2013 regular season for Major League Baseball. The Cardinals are three games in front of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Central with three games to go. A Cardinals victory or a Pirates loss give the Cardinals the NL Central title. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds are one game behind the Pirates as the Reds and Pirates begin a three game series which will determine who will have home field advantage for the Wild card play in game on Tuesday. In addition to that, the Pirates and Reds have bad blood between them because of earlier games in which words were exchanged. The Cardinals barring a major catastrophe will capture the NL Central title while playing their chief rival the Chicago Cubs. That’s not all: the Cardinals and Braves are currently tied for the best record in the National League and the team that ends the season with the best record will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. It’s gonna be a fun weekend.

The Kansas City Royals lost two out of three games to the Seattle Mariners earlier this week while the two teams in front of them were winning so the Royals chances of making the playoffs are gone. They have still had a good season especially compared with the last several but many would still view it as a disappointing season. I’m not one of them but there were times they could have played better.

The Kansas City Chiefs try to remain undefeated this weekend as they play the winless New York Giants at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. The Giants have looked awful their first three games while the Chiefs have looked impressive especially on defense. The Giants offense has really struggled this year so it could be an interesting game this weekend especially if the Chiefs offense can score against the Giants defense which has also struggled this year. I think that barring a total breakdown on both sides of the ball we will see the Chiefs go to 4 and 0 on Sunday.

Growing up I was told that if you couldn’t say something nice about somebody don’t say anything at all. Therefore, I will say nothing about the St. Louis Rams.

The Missouri Tigers play their last non conference game of the season tomorrow night against Arkansas State. They should have no problem beating Arkansas State but it may not be as easy as I initially thought as I have spent some time reading up on Arkansas State this week. The Tigers defense looked really good last week and their offense showed signs of getting into a rhythym so hopefully the Tigers can build on that momentum and come away with an easy victory. Those wanting to see the game on television should probably head on out to Stokes Stadium instead because unless you can find the game on Dish Network or DirecTV I don’t think it is available locally. Thanks for moving to the SEC Mizzou, I hope you are happy there.

Speaking of Stokes Stadium that is the place to be tomorrow night as the Truman State Bulldogs renew their almost one hundred year old rivalry with the Mules of Central Missouri. Of course this is now a non conference game but it doesn’t take anything away from the intensity of the rivalry. There have been some incredibly close and dramatic games in the past and I expect tomorrow night’s game to be no different. The Mules have had a brutal schedule thus far not only playing the top teams in the MIAA but teams that are ranked near the top in the country. The Bulldogs are coming off an exhilarating victory over a very game William Penn team last week so they should go into tomorrownight’s game with a lot of momentum. The game starts at 7:00 and hopefully the rain forecast for tomorrow will either stay away or be out of the area by then.

The Kirksville High School Tigers have their second home football game of the year tonight at Spainhower Field as the state ranked Hannibal Pirates come to town. The Pirates have an explosive offense and can put points on the board in bunches but the Tigers may have turned the corner last week during the second half of their game at Marshall. They mounted a furious comeback and came within one point of erasing a 33 point deficit. They need to take that momentum and carry it over into tonight’s game and work on not building such a large hole early. Hopefully they can come out fast and put some points on the board early. It should be an interesting game on what looks to be a great night for football.

The KHS softball team continues to play well and have a tough tournament this weekend against some very good teams. The tennis team lost a tough one yesterday but were playing very though competition. The girls golf team continues to play well and the cross country team has a meet tomorrow as well..

As you can see there is a lot going on this weekend and we will try to make sense of all of it and recap some of it in Monday’s blog. We will also look ahead to the start of the MLB post season and whatever else comes our way. Many area athletes will be displaying their skills this weekend so please get out and support your favorite team and sports. Thanks as always for supporting this and all the other blogs on this site. Let’s keep the conversation going: follow KDEBlog on Twitter. I will be updated frequently throughout this weekend.